The Book of Judges tells a sad story about Israel in the ‘promised land.’ Because the children of Israel did evil in God’s sight by following and worshipping ‘other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them,’ God delivered the Israelites into the hands of ‘plunders who despoiled them.’ The people were greatly distressed and cried out to the Lord. God raised up ‘judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.’ However, when a judge would die, the people reverted to their sin of following after other gods.

Though God’s anger ‘was hot against Israel,’ He continued to love and test them –

Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, ‘Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.’ Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua. Judges 2:20-23

Ruth and Hannah

Most of the judges came from tribes other than Judah, but the Seed of the woman (Jesus Christ) who would destroy the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15) would come through Judah (Matthew 1 & Luke 3). Two women who played an important role in God’s plan to bring our Savior into the world were Ruth and Hannah.

Both women lived during the time of the Judges. I’ll explain Ruth first (from the Book of Ruth). It started when a family of the tribe of Judah living in Bethlehem moved to the country of Moab because of a famine. The husband’s name was Elimelech. His wife was Naomi. Unfortunately, Naomi’s husband died. Her sons married two Moabite women, Oprah and Ruth, but they also died. Naomi heard that God had visited His people by giving them bread, so she decided to return to the land of Judah. Naomi told her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab and remarry. However, Ruth would not leave Naomi and made the journey back to Bethlehem.

Ruth went to work in the fields to find food. That’s where she met Boaz, who was a relative of Elimelech. Boaz was ‘a man of great wealth’ and treated Ruth kindly because of her kindness to Naomi. A relationship developed between them and Boaz ‘redeemed’ her and they became husband and wife. Ruth gave birth to Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David – who became King of Israel. God’s eternal plan for Israel to ‘reign’ was working even during the sad times of the Judges. A famine sent Naomi and her family to Moab, where Ruth became a daughter-in-law. When they returned to Judah, they became ancestors of Israel’s greatest king.

The second woman was named Hannah. She also lived during the time of the Judges, but we find her story in 1 Samuel. She was married to a man from the tribe of Ephraim named Elkanah. He had two wives – Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not. The family would go up to Shiloh every year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. One year Eli the priest saw Hannah crying and praying, though he thought she was drunk at first because he saw her lips move but heard no sound. Hannah made a vow to God that if He would give her a son, she would give him back to the Lord. When Eli talked with Hannah and realized she was praying, he said – ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him’ (1 Samuel 1:17).

God blessed Hannah and Elkanah with a son. She named the boy Samuel, saying ‘Because I have asked for him from the Lord.’ After Hannah weaned Samuel, she took the boy to Shiloh and presented him to Eli the priest. 1 Samuel 2 contains the wonderful prophetic prayer of Hannah about a king who God would use to ‘reign’ over Israel. Samuel remained with Eli in Shiloh, but Hannah visited her son once a year when she came up to Shiloh with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. The Lord blessed Hannah with three more sons and two daughters. ‘Meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the Lord.’

Samuel – Prophet, Judge, Kingmaker

1 Samuel 3 tells us that the Word of the Lord was ‘rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.’ However, that was about to change. God began speaking to Samuel when he was a boy. The first prophecy that God gave Samuel concerned the upcoming punishment upon the house of Eli. That prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.

So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. 1 Samuel 3:19-21

In addition to being God’s prophet, Samuel became Israel’s judge. He told the children of Israel to return to the Lord with all their hearts, and put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreths from among them. Samuel said that if they did and served God only, the Lord would deliver Israel ‘from the hand of the Philistines.’ The Israelites did as Samuel told them and God confused the Philistines so that the Israelites were able to drive them away.

So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. 1 Samuel 7:13-14

Samuel became old and the people of Israel did not want his sons judging them. They demanded a king like the other nations had. Samuel warned them how life would be for them under the control of a king, but the people continued to demand a king.

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, ‘No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.’ And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. So the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed their voice, and make them a king.’ 1 Samuel 8:19-22

We read in 1 Samuel 9 that God told Samuel to anoint Saul from the tribe of Benjamin as king. This was part of training Israel to reign in the promised land. Their desire to have a king rule over them came from their ‘flesh,’ so God gave them a king who would rule from his ‘flesh. 1 Samuel 12 contains the details of Samuel’s warning to Israel about obeying the Word of the Lord. Samuel told them that ‘if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.’ 1 Samuel 13 contains the details of King Saul’s disobedience and what would happen to the king and his family –

And Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.’ 1 Samuel 13:13-14

God sent Samuel to the home of Jesse, a member of the tribe of Judah, to choose another king for Israel.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. 1 Samuel 16:13

David became King of Israel many years later following the death of Saul and his son Jonathan (1 Samuel 31). Samuel truly was Israel’s great prophet, judge, and kingmaker.

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Next Time

David spent many difficult years ‘training to reign’ in Israel. We’ll look at some of the lessons he learned in the next part of our special series – Train to Reign.

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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